Double or Nothing (Part 1)

I haven't posted any of my guitar for a while, so here is a small bit from the latest piece I am working on called Double or Nothing.  This piece uses hammer-ons, pull offs, slides and bends.

Hope you like it:

Thanks for having a listen.

Portugal 2016 - Birds

I wanted to share with you all some of the pictures I took in Portugal this year. We were staying in the North, quite close to the Spanish border.  This blog post is pictures of some of the great birds I photographed there:

Bluethroat

Waxbill

Wryneck

Wild Bird Wednesday

Above & Below the Sea in Anglesey

I put together all my Go-Pro clips from this week's visit to Anglesey to make a short video. Hope you like it.

Breaking in the new Amp

I got a new amp yesterday which has quite a few new settings on it. So here's a few clips of some of the sounds it can do. Hope you like it.

A Day At Marbury Park

Yesterday I went to my Grandma's house and today I decided to spend the day with my mum at a place called Marbury Park near Northwich. There's a big lake surrounded with reeds and they also have lots of different feeding stations, but my favourite one is the one right at the very front which looks over a big lake, as you should see in the photo below.

I took this photo as a landscape shot for my blog today so the people who read it will be able to see what parts of the lake will look like. Today in the reed bed there could have been a possible chance of a bittern, but not in same reeds as the ones you see here. It was the ones at the other side of the lake which you can't see in this photo. I think it could of been a bittern because I did get some photos of something in the reeds and it definitely was a bird with the same colours as a bittern, but there had also been recordings of a bittern seen in the reeds as well. But on the other hand I don't think it was one because it was stood there for the whole time we where there which was the whole day and it never moved a single bit. So it brings me down to it could of been one or it just wasn't one.      

So after I was debating on "it was or it wasn't" I took some pictures of some birds. There was a very big noisy Mallard, so I guessed it wanted its photo taken to go on my blog and there's also proof that he wanted a picture because you can tell he's giving a big cheesy sideways grin. He's obviously been practising smiling.

  

But then of course you have to get a photo of a Robin (why not) and I just think they're really nice bird,s until they see another Robin and go all territorial, then start fighting each other. I think I managed to get a good photo of this beautiful Robin as it was getting ready to do a big leap to the feeding station. It sort-of looks like he's going to fall backwards and get stuck on his back. I still like the photo though.      

Waiting abut 10mins and a Kingfisher came shooting down the mere and then started to turn away from us and landed in the opposite tree on the other side of the lake. Can you see the Kingfisher in the bottom-left-hand-corner, but then there's a Heron as well in the top-right-hand-corner. The Kingfisher has intruded the edge of the Heronry and then all the Herons will come down and eat the King Fisher. That's just in my imagination of course.    

I only put this photo in because I was in the middle of taking a quick photo of a Blue Tit which would have turned out to be a good photo, but it got photo bombed by another Blue Tit, ruining my photo. It also looks like one of the Blue Tit's has just knocked it's self out by flying into the feeder.         

This is probably the funniest photo of today because it looks like he's just opening his mouth and hoping some fish will just fly in, but actually he's yawning. I had to climb this muddy bank to get a photo of it because there was a big stick in the way and I wanted a record shot so, yes, I did climb a muddy bank. 

I hope you all had a great day.

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday

Going To My Grandma's

Today I woke up at 7:25 and a while later left the house with my brother, mum, dad for an exciting journey (well not that much of an exciting journey) to my grandma's house with all the land she owns. I was going over to North Wales to film some of the birds she gets and take some pictures of landscapes and things like that, but I was also there to catch up with things that happened over Christmas and all family things basically.

In this photo I was in the middle of trying to video any birds or rats (any wildlife) that came down to feed on the specially made selection box of seeds, but the problem was my grandma's ANNOYING chickens! They kept going over and pecking on the selection box I made.  Chickens do get on my nerves sometimes, but they can be very nice at times. 

    

I eventually gave up on filming the birds (more like filming the chickens) and decided to take some pictures and waited for a while standing with two aching legs, but eventually a nice bird came down to say hello. It was a coal tit. I was really happy that he came down after our agreement, because I specially talked to him on the phone about if he could come down so I could take some pictures of him perching on some different branches.  But after one photo he got a bit angry at me because I was bossing him to much on what to do and how to pose, so the bird just flew away after one photo. I still think the way he/she is sat looks really well positioned, what do you think? 

Moving on from the Coal Tit we go over to the Blue Tit. I think the Coal Tit is nicer than the Blue Tit because you I don't see them much around where I live, where as the Blue Tit is still very nice but I see them all the time. That's around where I live of course.  

Now from a Blue Tit to a Chaffinch, the last bird on this blog. I chose this bird to be the last of the bird photo for today because I wanted to have a rest and I had about 5mins to pack up my things before I had to head back to my house, so I looked around for a quick bird picture and I chose this one. I tried to get it with something in it's mouth but it never worked. At least I got an okay photo though. 

I then started walking back to the house and saw a brilliant photo opportunity. So you know what I did, I got my camera out and simple as that I took the photo and got a lovely river, hillside and trees . The water fall running down the hill was caused by all the recent heavy rain.

Hope you all had a great day.

River Walk.

I set of with my mum for a nice walk with my camera equipment and straight after we turned the corner it was extremely misty over the fields and I could think of a picture in my head as I looked over the field. So I did try and get the picture I wanted, but it took a couple of goes and eventually I got the picture I was looking for with the farm and the trees in the background. The only thing I don't like about the photo is the telegraph phone wire at the top, but other than that I think it's quite good.  

We walked down the track to the river and it was surrounded with mist just like I was. I didn't think I could get an as good a photo as this because the mist was very thick, but as soon as I pressed the button to take the picture, the sun shone through the mist and made me get an alright photo. It doesn't look like the sun shone though, but it did.

Moving on along about 20m and there were two stunning Wood Duck swimming like they do, so I got some food out to tempt them over and it worked. They came over so I got my camera ready on the correct setting and looked through the eye-piece and waited for it to get into the right angle to get the shot. I focussed the camera and as simple as that I took the shot. To be honest it turned out quite good with it's brightly coloured body. My favourite thing about this photo is the head because it's got a range of different colours. I don't think there's any thing I dislike about this photo.   

On this photo I was almost at the locks, but still it was so misty this photo doesn't look very good, but I like it. It looks like the Canada Goose at the front is the boss (captain) of the group and then the other 5 behind the one in front can be servants that get the boss it's food. 

Lastly but not least there was a brilliant Great-Crested-Grebe to finish the day off. For me they're the most annoying bird when trying to take a photo because they keep diving underwater when you try to get a photo. So all I get is a photo of water. I think to myself this is going to be an amazing photo when I realise I have actually missed the bird I'm trying to get a photo of.

A really great walk.